Teen mom told police she feared son's father

By Lindsay Kastner :
July 20, 2012
: Updated: July 20, 2012 11:09pm

Defendant Tiffany James confers with defense attorney Robert Gebbia on the first day of her trial for the murder of Antwan Wolford in the 399th District Court in San Antonio on Thursday, July 19, 2012.

Photo By Lisa Krantz/San Antonio Express-News

Carol De Leon, right, comforts Tiffany James during the first break on the first day of the trial for James, who is charged with the murder of Antwan Wolford, in the 399th District Court in San Antonio on Thursday, July 19, 2012. De Leon was a teacher at Sam Houston High School where James was a student at the time she was charged with murder. De Leon has remained as her supporter.

Photo By Lisa Krantz/San Antonio Express-News

Felicia Wilson, a cousin of Antwan Wolford, turns away from a crime scene photograph being projected of Wolford, which shows him lying in a pool of blood after his death, during the first day of the trial for Tiffany James, who is charged with the murder of Wolford, in the 399th District Court in San Antonio on Thursday, July 19, 2012.

Photo By Lisa Krantz/San Antonio Express-News

Dawayne Huggins, the step-father of Antwan Wolford, watches a witness testifying during the first day of the trial for Tiffany James, who is charged with the murder of Wolford, in the 399th District Court in San Antonio on Thursday, July 19, 2012.

Photo By Lisa Krantz/San Antonio Express-News

Defendant Tiffany James cries next to defense attorney Robert Gebbia, left, during the first day of her trial for the murder of Antwan Wolford in the 399th District Court in San Antonio on Thursday, July 19, 2012.

Teenage mom Tiffany Lyn James was “scared for her life” and grabbed a knife only to try to keep her son's angry father at bay, she told police in a videotaped statement taken shortly after she stabbed Antwan Wolford to death in November 2009.

But James committed the first act of aggression, pushing him, Sgt. Miles Earwood said Friday during the second day of her murder trial. He said he saw no signs of injury on James when he took her statement.

James' trial hinges on whether jurors will believe she was a battered teen mother weary of another beating or a spurned lover furious that her live-in boyfriend had impregnated two other women and was trying to obtain custody of one of the children.

A high school senior at the time, James told police within hours of the slaying that Wolford, 18, had come home angry on the afternoon of Nov. 20, 2009. He called her names before following her sister outside. James locked him out, she said.

“He kept banging on the door, banging on the door,” James, then 17, said in the video played for the jury Friday. “I knew what was going to happen, because we'd been through this before, and I got the knife to scare him off.”

Eventually, James said, she relented, letting Wolford in to retrieve some belongings. But the pair continued to argue. Wolford tried to throw a cup of Kool-Aid at her, she pushed him and soon they were struggling, the knife still in her hand, she said.

Wolford grabbed her shirt and pulled her about by the hair, James told Earwood. She stabbed him and he “was just bleeding everywhere,” she said, crying.

Earwood asked whether Wolford hit her that afternoon before she locked him out. She shook her head no and said, “I was scared because this is how it always starts.”

From the stand, Earwood said he did not believe James acted from fear, or “she would have called the police.”

“Had she been afraid or in fear of her safety, she wouldn't have let him back inside. ... She could have left the apartment,” he said.

Defense Attorney Robert Gebbia argued that James had no obligation “to retreat from her own home” and that domestic violence victims are not always inclined to call the police.

On the video, Earwood asked James more than once why she didn't simply call police.

“He's not scared of the police,” she said. “And I called the police before. They came and took pictures — nothing.”

Earwood also asked where the couple's 2-year-old son was during the fight.